TODD OWEN LOOKS TO CONTINUE STRONG RUN IN RESCHEDULED LINCOLN TECH MRS 80 AT STAFFORD SPEEDWAY
(Stafford Springs, CT)—When the Modified Racing Series came to Stafford
Motor Speedway in June for the Inaugural Lincoln Tech 80 MRS event, Stafford
SK Modified® regular Todd Owen had a great drive going with his #29 Cooker
Construction sponsored entry in the race before rain halted the feature at
lap-32. Owen had the fastest car in the MRS practice session, and after
crashing in his heat race and starting the feature in 20th place, Owen had
climbed his way up through the field into 7th place when the rain came.
When the MRS cars return to Stafford this Friday night, July 29th for the
resumption of the Lincoln Tech 80, Owen hopes to continue his charge to the
front of the field.
“We were going really good,” said Owen. “That car always goes good on the
bigger tracks, we won with it a couple years ago at Thompson and we were the
fastest car in the practice session. We got wrecked in the heat race, so we
didn’t get to show how good the car was in the heat and we had to start
20th. We definitely had a car that could have won the race, we came from
20th to 7th in 32 laps.”
While Owen will be looking to continue his charge towards the front of the
field when the MRS field takes the green flag, he and the other 27 cars will
be facing an unknown set of circumstances. After the rain halted the
Lincoln Tech 80 at lap-32, MRS officials impounded the tires from each car
and the field will have to restart the race on the tires they had on the car
at the time of the rain.
“It’s definitely going to be interesting for everyone,” said Owen. “I can’t
ever remember a race where tires got impounded and then given back to finish
a race. But it’s not just me, there’s 27 other guys who will be out there
with the same problem. With 48 laps to go, it’s going to be a shoot-out and
I don’t think you’ll see any conserving going on in the race.”
While the teams may not know what to expect when they return to Stafford,
Owen feels like he may have a small advantage over the rest of the field for
the resumption of the Lincoln Tech 80.
“We haven’t touched the car since we left Stafford,” said Owen. “The series
regulars have traveled to several tracks since Stafford and have had to
change their cars around, so guys like myself and Keith [Rocco], we might
have a small advantage with the car setup by leaving the cars as they were.
We might make a minor change there or there, but we’re going to go right
back to where we were with the car. I don’t think that the practice session
will be as important for us as some of the other guys. We just hope that we
don’t end up going backwards as fast as we came to the front when the race
gets restarted. No one has a 100% guarantee on how their car is going to be
and I’ll know within the first lap or two if we have the car as good as we
did in June.”
In addition to his MRS duties, Owen will also be behind the wheel of his #90
Cooker Construction SK Modified®, where he will look to build upon a 6th
place finish in last week’s CARQUEST SK 150 event. Owen’s good finish last
week boosted him into the fifth position in the SK Modified® championship
points standings and Owen is looking to record his first SK Modified®
victory since a win in the SK Modified® 100 in 2006.
“The season has been pretty good for us so far, I’d give it a 7 on a scale
of 1 to 10,” said Owen. “We’re not quite where we want to be obviously, but
hopefully in the second half we can get things turned around and get going
good again. I feel like the first third of the season we were close and
then we struggled a little, but we seem to have gotten it back last week
with a 6th place finish. If the 88 [Keith Rocco] and 40 [Ryan Preece] cars
keep going like they have been, we’re all racing for second place right now.
Sixth was a good finish for us and if we can keep on having good runs, the
wins will come. A win would stop everyone from razzing me about not having
a win in a while, and a win would be good for the whole team.”
Tickets for the rescheduled Lincoln Tech MRS 80 event at Stafford Motor
Speedway are on sale now and are priced at $25.00 for Adult General
Admission, $5.00 for Children Ages 6-14 General Admission, and $28.00 for
Reserved Seating. Tickets can be ordered by calling the Stafford Motor
Speedway track office at 860-684-2783, or tickets can be purchased the night
of the show at the gate. Stafford Speedway will be honoring all rain checks
from the original June 24 date for this Friday night’s rescheduled Lincoln
Tech 80 MRS event.
For more information, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at
860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com
North East Racing Forum – http://www.neracingforum.com/forum